Moontown

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, when one
listens to the Honourable Member for St. James North, one
gets the impression that rural Barbados is some place one
should not live. I was wondering where he got that
impression from. But when I look at the manifesto of the
Barbados Labour Party I observed that it is in the
manifesto of the Barbados Labour Party that he got this
impression:
“But many districts in rural Barbados have not kept
pace with modern development due in major part to
the dislocations and loss of employment resulting
from the indiscriminate fragmentation of prime
agricultural land.”
It goes on:
“The decline of traditional communities poses
considerable difficulty in maintaining law and order
and sustaining the stability and prosperity of rural
society. We will rebuild strong, vibrant rural
communities in which our people will find it desirable
to reside, work and play.”
I cannot believe Sir, that this is the same rural
Barbados I know, because if you want to talk about vibrant
communities in Barbados the place to find those vibrant
communities is in rural Barbados where you get the
oneness and sharing of ideas etc. So I cannot see how you
can associate crime with rural Barbados when the
Honourable Attorney General, the Member for St. Thomas,
at one stage in this same Parliament was talking about
closing the police station at Crab Hill, St. Lucy.
Hon. R. C. EASTMOND: On a point of order, Sir, if
I heard the Honourable Member for St. Lucy say that I
associated crime with rural Barbados. I am objecting to any
suggestion that the Honourable Member for St. Lucy is
suggesting that I linked crime to the conditions of rural
Barbados. I never at any point mentioned crime.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Nor did I say so. I said it
was the manifesto that said that
Asides,
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: I am not going to
get involved in that, Mr. Speaker. To structure a rural
development policy based only on agriculture in rural
Barbados is a big flaw because if one has to be serious….
12.00 noon.
Hon. Miss B. A. MILLER: Mr. Speaker, Sir, on a
point of order. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I hold in my hand the
1984 Manifesto of the Barbados Labour Party. I am
looking at page 29 - Rural Development The third
paragraph. No reference whatsoever to crime. It is a grave
misdirection of this Chamber for the Honourable Member
to suggest that the Barbados Labour Party Manifesto is
seeking to link urban development with crime. If I may
read, Sir. The third paragraph says that a decline of
traditional communities poses considerable difficulties in
maintaining law and order and sustaining the stability and
prosperity of rural societies. How can this possibly be
interpreted to import crime?
Mr. SPEAKER: Let us proceed, please.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, I am no
lawyer but law and order …
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: I have no problem with
that, Mr. Speaker, but I am saying, Sir, if we are going to
have a policy which states that agriculture is going to be
the bedrock one would have thought that as I have said in
this Honourable House already that the Barbados
Agricultural Management Company should set up an agroprocessing
plant and I have not seen that so I cannot see
how you can be speaking about agriculture and giving the
impression that the only job that can be created for the
people in rural Barbados is jobs from agriculture.
I am saying, Sir, that in rural Barbados there is room
for hotel plant I am saying, Sir, that at the Naval Base
Facility the facilities are there that a hotel can be
constructed or the buildings can be refurbished where
people in rural Barbados can get employment, and I am not
talking about at the end of the ladder. I am saying that we
have a good opportunity to provide local management for
something that is owned by Barbadians at the Naval Base
in St Lucy.

Further to that, Sir, it gives a good opportunity and I
believe that is what the Honourable Member for Christ
Church West had in his mind when he took a strong stance
against the Naval Base being in St. Lucy because he saw
the opportunity where we could have developed the Naval
Base for poor people in Barbados to get an opportunity to
be involved in the hotel industry in this country.
At North Point, Sir, we have another facility there
which could be developed, and you are talking about
developing rural Barbados? In rural Barbados we have
areas where we could develop health tourism.
Aside.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: No problem, Sir, but it is
in our minds. That is the important thing. Further to that,
Sir, we have the Cove Bay and we have River Bay. These
are all areas that if they are developed properly that we can
provide meaningful employment for our people. I see Pico
Teneriffe, the Drax Hall area, the area of the Lion at Gun
Hill and also in St. Philip. When I hear people talking
about rural Barbados sometimes I wonder where is Ruby
Park and all those developments that you mentioned last
Tuesday. I wonder if it is the same rural Barbados that we
are speaking about.

Mr. Speaker, I hear people come to this House of
Assembly and they would give the impression that nothing
has been done for rural Barbados. It is true that some
things might not have been done that were planned. Prior
to 1976, in the Manifesto of the Democratic Labour Party
there was a plan for a small airport in St Lucy at Spring
Garden. As the Honourable Member for Christ Church
South would know, that is on flat land and it would
have been a good area for a small airport He would also
know that after 1976 the Barbados Labour Party came to
Government and what happened to that plan.
I also remember, Mr. Speaker, that Heywoods was a
project started by the Democratic Labour Party to help
develop Speightstown and we knew that you could not only
have a hotel but you had to have other things. That is why
we bought the St. Joseph Hospital to make sure that when
you develop rural Barbados, especially in the Northern
areas, that you would have the necessary health facilities in
those areas.
I want to go back to the agro-processing plant and I
want to tell you that if you are thinking about agriculture
and you are only thinking about agriculture dealing with
sugar cane you have no plans because I cannot support it.
You are not going to get small people going back into the
planting of sugar cane. If you are going to encourage small
people to be involved in the agricultural industry what you
have to do is set up an agro-processing plant.
This is my plan, Sir. I feel, as I have said before, that
the Barbados Agricultural Management Company is on a
good foundation now to set up an agro-processing plant It
has leased many plantations and it needs to lease some
more.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: No, no, the Barbados
Agricultural Management Company because there is a need
for the BAMC and the BADMC to come together. The
time is right. We should not have two bodies. I am saying,
Sir, that since 1991, after the structural programme of the
Democratic Labour Party, a lot of Barbadians got involved
in agriculture. Do you know what they were doing, Sir?
They were using the land at the back of their homes and
planting vegetables and this caused us to have gluts. The
only way that we can solve that problem and at the same
time make sure that the consumers in this country can pay
a good price for the produce they are buying is if we
encourage people to mass produce, or encourage everybody
to produce. But, Sir, if you do that you are going to have
a surplus we have to ask ourselves, what are we going to
do with the surplus? Are you going to continue dumping
the surplus, Sir? But if you have a processing plant, Sir,
you can these things. You can do many things with them.
But with the Barbados Agricultural Management Company
which will be given the mandate to buy the vegetables and
distribute the vegetables. When I say distribute the
vegetables, I do not mean locally because I honestly feel
that with the amount of land that they have in their
possession and the technology that they have in place they
should be exporting to the other Caribbean countries and
they should also be exporting to North America. I cannot
understand why we should be buying vegetables from
North America when they can only grow vegetables in
three months out of the year and we have the capacity of
growing vegetables for 12 months and yet we want to buy
vegetables from them.

I cannot understand that, Sir, and I am saying that
with the structure in place at the BAMC that we have a
good foundation to be exporting vegetables to North
America instead of importing, Sir. But we must have the
processing plant, Sir. The small fanners will be able to
grow the vegetables and supply the local market. The
BAMC will be able to plant their vegetables for the export
market. Any surplus from the other plantations and other
growers whether it is the Springhall Land Lease Project
will be able to come to the BAMC and decide whether
they want to export the vegetables or whether they want to
can them.
But I go back to 1967 again, Sir. I do not mind going
back and talking about the no cane blade speech, Sir. I
maintain that, if that statement was taken in the right
context, I would not have to be here today talking about an
agro-processing plant because we would have done it since
1967 and we would not be importing all of these
vegetables from Trinidad and Jamaica. Because we would
have been exporting these vegetables to Trinidad.
One would not believe, Sir, that a country like
Trinidad that depended on oil dollar for all of the years
could now be exporting vegetables to Barbados when we
had the golden opportunity to be exporting vegetables to
Trinidad. If they could have done it in those short years,
think of what would have happened if we had started in
1967.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, we also have to be very careful on
how we are closing schools because in rural Barbados if
we really have a good plan for rural Barbados the evidence
is there that, instead of people leaving rural Barbados to go
to urban Barbados, you are going to have people leaving
urban Barbados to come to rural Barbados. With that
scenario, Sir, you will have a situation where there will be
a great demand for schools in rural Barbados. It might not
happen tomorrow, Sir, but it is going to happen.
Talking about the problems of rural Barbados, Sir,
road improvements. That is true. Road improvements and
lighting - that is true. You see, Mr. Speaker, one has to
understand rural Barbados. Rural Barbados is that part of
Barbados where people as soon as they get money they
construct homes and they do not normally construct a home
where a road is. They construct their home where they own
a piece of land or where the land is owned by someone
who is close to them or a friend that is prepared to rent
that piece of land to them. So what you will get is
1604
a situation where a piece of land that was once used for the
cultivation of sugar cane, a youngster comes along and gets
involved with a lady -1 am being practical about this, Mr.
Speaker - sets up a family and he realizes that he has to
get a home. He goes to his neighbour or his father or
somebody like that, Sir, and he says that we are involved
and we want to marry and we need to have our own roof.
Permission is given that there is a quarter acre of land out
there and you can put your house on it. That is the talk you
hear in rural Barbados. They go and construct the home
and they do not think whether there is a road. They think
of the home. Then someone realizes that Mr. X built a
house next door and the trend goes on. Then you get 12 or
15 houses on one side. Then there is the need for lighting
and there is the need for roads and the other amenities.
So when you are speaking about rural Barbados, rural
Barbados cannot really be compared to urban Barbados
because the thoughts are different You take the Democratic
Labour Party. They might go in and build 20 roads and by
the next 5 years there would be 20 more roads to be built
somewhere else. Because in rural Barbados instead of
waiting on Government to build apartments, Sir, you find
a situation where the individuals look after the building of
the homes, et cetera and then they look to Government to
come along and put in the necessary amenities. That is why
sometimes, Sir, you will find such a situation. You take the
constituency in which I represent, Sir. You can build so
many roads but in 5 years time you will need another 40
because those people get together and help one another to
build houses and when the houses are built the roads are
needed. So nobody has to come and tell me that I sent a
letter for 40 roads because development in rural Barbados,
especially the one that I am representing is growing so fast
that you can never keep pace with the number of roads or
street lighting that you have to put in place. That is why I
can afford to say, Sir, that you have to be very careful of
how you are closing schools down in rural Barbados
because there is going to be a great demand for schools in
rural Barbados within the next five years.
Craft, Sir - we have to ask ourselves what we are
going to do about craft and what we are going to put in
place to make sure that when all of these all-inclusive
hotels are set up on the West Coast how my people in rural
Barbados will be able to attract the tourists into rural
Barbados and get some of the money. Because by the time
all of the hoteliers decide that they want all-inclusive
tourism we have to find a way in rural Barbados whether
it be sports tourism or craft to make sure that we can
attract the tourists into rural Barbados. I am saying that any
rural programme must have things in place to facilitate
craft and sports tourism also, Sir.
We are hearing a lot of talk about how many roads
would be built, et cetera. But I want to remind this House,
Sir, that September 7, 1994, and I know that the new
servants would not forget this date, that we had a lot of
rain in Barbados and many roads in Barbados were
damaged. Yes, Mr. Speaker, many roads in rural Barbados
were damaged because the majority of rain was in rural
Barbados and I have not seen the repair job yet. If you go
through Crab Hill, whether it is No. 1 or No. 2, or if you
go through Stroud Bay Road - Yes, down by your friend
- you would realize, Mr. Speaker, that the roads in rural
Barbados and I am not speaking about new roads but I am
talking about roads that have been destroyed since
September 7.

There is the need to have them repaired and
I do not want to hear that the Democratic Labour Party was
in Government and they did not repair them. Because there
was no need to repair them. It was according to them the
showers of blessing that destroyed the roads in rural
Barbados.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, as I have
said before, rural Barbados is expanding at such a rate that
we need to see the main road going right through Crab
Hill. It needs widening and, if you are discussing rural
Barbados the same road that the Honourable Member for
St. James North mentioned in Stroud Bay leading right
down to the beach and since we are dealing with ways to
attract the tourists away from the hotels on the West Coast
and get them into rural Barbados, I want to see a road built
from the top of Stroud Bay Road right down to the beach
in rural Barbados. In that way the youngsters in Stroud Bay
Road will be able to set up their craft centres, et cetera and
get some of the tourist dollars in the same way as the
people on the West Coast who believe that all of the
money belong to them. My people in rural Barbados might
get some, yes, as you would know.
I also would like to see, Sir, in developing rural
Barbados a bridge constructed from…yes, this is part of
rural development in rural Barbados…River Bay to Bishops.

I would like to see a bridge constructed from River
Bay leading to Bishops, Sir, so that when they pass through
River Bay they can go straight on to Bishops, on to the
Cove. Free access, Sir. We will save some foreign
exchange, we will not have to waste so much gas driving
right around. We would like to see a lot of things being
done in rural Barbados, and I would really encourage you,
Sir, to take a trip to rural Barbados in the constituency of
St. Lucy and you will realise that there are certain
amenities. We do not mind it being called rural, but we
like the development that is going on. Once you come and
you do the things I have asked since September, once you
do the things in rural Barbados, little Barbados would be a
paradise, but the problem is not doing the things, it is
doing them correctly.

I hope that after the notes have been taken and the
policies put in place - and I hope they will accept what I
have said and put them in place - because if I observe that
they are putting the right things in place, I also have
another master plan for them which I will not give them
now. They have to show me that they are genuinely willing
to assist - I cannot really use the word “assist” after the
work that the Democratic Labour Party has done in rural
Barbados - after they have shown me that they are willing
to continue the policy…..
Aside,
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: That is not true. Mr.
Speaker, I saw in the newspaper that there was this $200
million or $400 million rural programme and I saw that the
main beneficiary of this rural programme was the
Honourable Member for St. George South and the
Honourable Member for St. Lucy. That was started in the
90s. I do not know, I have to investigate it I do not know
if they have plans for isolating St. George South and St.
Lucy and that is why it was in the newspaper, but I know
that there was a rural programme left by the Democratic
Labour Party, which was started, I know that we started to
get some benefits and I am aware that my friend got some.
All I am asking is that they will continue the rural
programme and not only do the highways, but that they
will do the tenantries, because there is a belief in this
country that once you build highways people in rural
Barbados will benefit. That is not true, Sir. When you build
a tenantry road, the people in rural Barbados will benefit
from it, because they know how to do the necessary to
improve their infrastructure, el cetera.
I also want to see in rural Barbados the infrastructure
in place, the same thing you have in urban Barbados. I do
not see why a constituent of mine would have to leave St.
Lucy to come to Bridgetown to get a passport. I am not
saying that you should put an office in St. Lucy, but you
can put it in Speightstown. I also would like to see that my
constituent should not have to go to the Pine to renew his
driver’s licence. He should be able to do the same thing in
Speightstown. Likewise, those from St. Philip have to go
to Christ Church, as the Honourable Member for St. Philip
North will agree. I am saying that if you put a proper
facility in place in rural Barbados, where the people from
rural Barbados can access these services, the demand for
having to go into urban Barbados would not be there and
they would be able to attract people coming the other way.
When you are coming to this House fo speak about
rural Barbados and you are going to bring a half-baked
policy, I cannot support it. I want to see everything, I want
to see the infrastructure in place, because it is a waste of
time asking people to go and do certain things and at the
end of the day they do not have any place to market their
produce or to provide services. These things must be put in
place and if you put these things in place the people will
believe that you are serious and they would give you 100%
backing.
I remember when we wanted to put an agricultural
policy in place to export vegetables. We set up the BMC
and then encouraged the farmers to produce more. The
farmers did it because they were aware that the Democratic
Labour Party had set up the BMC and they could produce
and send their produce to the BMC. If we did not do that,
the farmers would have ignored us, but they knew that the
BMC was there to buy the vegetables, and they knew the
BMC would have bought their produce no matter what
quantity they produced. I am saying that if you want to
develop agriculture in rural Barbados you have to find
outlets for the farmers to gain their confidence that there
will be somewhere for them to sell their produce at the end
of the day.
One has to be very careful. I do not mind large
farmers taking advantage of the market, but sometimes we
have to be very careful how we encourage small farmers to
get involved in things. If you take a drive from Warren’s
roundabout, Sir, to Mobil gas station in Redmans Village,
you would see a large structure where very soon you would
be able to buy all the produce you want. That produce
would not be bought from small farmers, it would be
grown on large estates in Barbados. What you are having
is that the small men, as I refer to them, in Redmans
Village who would normally sell their vegetables at the
street corners are going to be competing now with some
large farmers who have come together and applied some
more pressure to my people. I am saying if you have a
rural programme and the large farmers are coming together
- and they have the land, they know where to put up their
structures. The small farmers cannot do it, because they
find sometimes that they would go and set up, let us say,
in Redmans Village and three days after something else is
opened and somebody will come to them and say: “This is
my land, you will have to move.” It is those people we
have to protect, If we are encouraging people to go into
agriculture, we must first convince those people that we
have outlets for them and avenues where they will be able
to get rid of their produce.
Sir, I would also like to see the Minister of Tourism
encouraging or asking the Barbados Tourism Authority to
get together with the various groups in rural Barbados -
and if she wants advice on this she can seek the advice
from the Honourable Member for St. Michael South East
- to see how we can develop our community tourism, our
sports tourism, so that when the people come off the cruise
liners they can come into the districts and be part of our
community.

Mr. Speaker, tourism in Barbados has been developed
by the people of Barbados and what saddens me is to see
that there is a group of people who are forgetting that
tourism was developed by the people of Barbados and they
are trying now to alienate the tourists from Barbadians. We
are fast asking Barbadians to behave like Jamaicans or
other Caribbean people, or other people in the world, where
they see tourists as not part of them. Tourism is supposed
to be our business, so if tourism is our business we must
be part of the business. We cannot just be people seen as
those who would just say “Yes, Sir”, “Yes, Ma’am” and
that is all, we must share in the cake; and in order for us
to appreciate it more, we must get some of the benefits.

Mr. Speaker, I have already said what I had to say on
all-inclusive tourism and I will not say anymore. The day
is going to come in this country when we will brag that we
are making $3 billion from tourism and then the bankers in
New York or in Miami will be saying that they have
accounts holding for people in tourism for $5 or $6 billion
dollars and it will not be of any benefit to the people here
in Barbados. Then you will get a situation where the
bankers down town will start to cry out and they will start
supporting the small people in the districts in rural
Baibados. Do you know why, Mr. Speaker? Because the
hoteliers will not be borrowing from them anymore. They
will be using some of their funds overseas so they will start
feeling the crunch and they then will understand the
feelings of the small people in this country.
It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that once people are
getting through they do not care wh$t happens to other
people, but that is not me. 1 represent small people in this
country and whenever 1 see something happening to my
people I must speak out against it. That is why I will speak
out, whether it be all-inclusive tourism, whether it be
people who decide to set out large plants to run out small
people or not, I will speak out, Sir. Thank you very much.

Mr. SPEAKER: The Honourable Member for St.
Lucy.

July 11, 1995
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, we will be
supporting this Resolution also but I want to make a couple
observations on these loans. Mr. Speaker, for years, since
1985 we have been seeing a particular emphasis being
placed on interest rates whenever loans are borrowed and
we do not put any emphasis on the currency the loan is
being borrowed in. I want to warn this House that if you
are going to be borrowing money, interest rates will not be
the only factor that should be taken into account. There is
something called foreign exchange gains and foreign
exchange losses that you must place some emphasis on. I
am going to give you an example, Sir. In 1990 a loan was
raised on the English market for £30 million. We in
Barbados got $120 million at that point in time. If we did
not repay one single cent of that loan and you were to pick
up the phone now and call the Central Bank and ask them
how much money is owed to the English lender they would
tell you that we probably owe $90 million or $100 million
without repaying one single cent. I am saying, Sir, that
when people come to this House…
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: No, it is not a criticism, it
is a praise. Let me explain, Mr. Speaker. Let me explain it
again, Mr. Speaker. In 1990, the pound was over $4 which
meant that the $30 million would have given us $120
million or more. Today the pound is $3.16 which means
that it would have been $94 800 000. Foreign exchange
gains to the country would have been the difference
1524
of $120 million and the $94 800 000 which would work
out to about $25 200 000. 4.05 p.m.
Sir, when you are borrowing money you have to look
at the rate and you have to ask yourself whether the
currency is going to increase, appreciate or whether it is
going to fall. We found ourselves on many occasions
borrowing money on the international market, especially
the yen market, and I want to say there is nothing wrong
with borrowing a bullet loan, but there is something wrong
in borrowing a loan when there is evidence that the
economy of the country that you are borrowing from is
growing and the strength of the currency is increasing all
the time.
What it means, Sir, is that when you come to repay
the loan, instead of having to pay a constant amount, you
have to pay an increased amount. What we had in the 80s…
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: I am very happy to hear
you use the word “hedging”. I want to congratulate the
present Governor of the Central Bank for introducing
“hedging”, because if the previous Governors of the Central
Bank had listened to me earlier they would have introduced
that.
You see, Mr. Spe.aker, we cannot talk about
borrowing money and only speak about interest rates. There
are other things that affect the loans. We have to be very
careful and this Resolution is rather interesting because if
you look at Item 4 and then you compare 9, you can
understand where the Prime Minister was coming from.
That is why he can afford to talk about keeping the rate at
10% because he is not going to get the money from the
Central Bank but he is going to borrow it overseas. Later
on, he will probably introduce something which would give
him some more revenue.
Sir, I do not know whether 17.5 is the right figure or
whether 10 but we are dealing with $40 million to help the
finances of the Government. US$40 million is $80 million
and this has something to do with 10% of the borrowing
from the Central Bank. The Honourable Member for St.
Peter would know that. So don’t let them mislead you, Sir.
You see, Sir, all I would like to say on this matter is
that when we borrow loans I want to hear whether we
made a foreign exchange gain or whether we made a
foreign exchange loss and I want to know the quantum. I
do not want to hear about interest rates. If you are
borrowing on the U.S. market, I don’t want to hear
anything about your foreign exchange gains or losses
because the dollar is tied to the U.S. dollar, so there will be
no foreign exchange gains or losses.
When you are borrowing on the English market, the
European market or the Japanese market, I want to hear
about the foreign exchange gains and losses and when you
tell me about the foreign exchange gains or losses then I
can tell you whether it is a good loan or not. Thank you.

Mr. SPEAKER: The Honourable Member for St.
Lucy.

April 18, 1995
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, this Act, as
I have listened to many speakers from the other side, seems
to have nothing to do with drugs, as was mentioned by the
Honourable Minister when he said, in his opening
statement that he is trying to eradicate the beach of drugs,
et cetera.
While I listened to other speakers, on the other side,
I have heard about car washers, about taximen, about
vendors and I have heard a lot of other things. We have a
problem in this country and I am not sure if the
Honourable Member for St. Thomas is aware of it, that
there is a group of people who would feed advice to people
and the type of advice that they wbuld give to people is
advice to give a particular impression. So that when you
come with legislation, that advice that they have given you
is advice to protect their interest.
We had in this country in the sixties, the seventies
and early eighties certain activities that were controlled by
what we would call the beach vendors and other small
businessmen. We now have in this country a situation
where people who we would have said previously would
not have gotten involved in these activities like beach
vending, the operating of watercraft, et cetera. We have a
situation now where they are getting involved in these
activities. It seems to me that they have smartly set about
to feed information into the authorities to make sure that
small businessmen are branded in such a way that these
small businessmen will not be able to operate any longer.
We have a situation where, previously, you had large
hotels that were not involved in vending. They were not
involved in watersports. Some of them were not even
involved in restaurants or minimarts. But now they are
getting involved in these things and they are trying to say
that the Laws that we have at present that they are not
good laws.
They are saying that people who are trying to
promote their businesses, et cetera, that they are vagrants.
We have to look at the information that is being fed to us
and we must be sure that the information is not information
that is fed to us to deprive small people who are competing
against other business people who previously used finance
as the way to promote their businesses, but now they are
trying to use us, as politicians, to protect their interest
As you are aware, Sir, I am always talking about the
all-inclusive concept. You can see it You can see how
these people plan for you. They have brought in the system
of all-inclusive tourism to keep out the small man. They
are now asking us to amend the Vagrancy Act, also to keep
out the small man.

Check and see that, previously, the tourism industry
was controlled by what we call the foreigners. I am not
talking about the small hotels, et cetera. But all of a
sudden, there are groups of people in Barbados who are
getting involved in tourism, people who never were
accustomed to getting involved in tourism. They want
everything for themselves, Mr. Speaker, not realizing that,
in Barbados this is a country that belongs to all of us and
that we must have a share of the cake and it must be
equally divided. They feel that once they buy a hotel that
they must be able to supply every service to that hotel, not
realizing that, if they provide…
Mr. SPEAKER: One minute, please. Honourable
Members, on this side, I am having some difficulty hearing
the Honourable Member. Let us hear him* please.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Yes, Sir. Not realizing that
if the policy of the Government is to promote small
business and if that policy is to be developed, that these
large hoteliers must leave some scope where these small
businessmen can continue their businesses and also
encourage other small businessmen to get involved to help
solve the unemployment situation, in this country. But we
are not getting that, Sir.
What you are finding is a situation where people are
building hotels and now they are trying to provide
everything, every possible service. They are keeping out
the small man. What would happen? The small man cannot
afford to pay for an ad on television. He has to approach
the tourists and, under this Act, he would be regarded as
annoying someone or harassing someone, when that small
man would only be promoting a service that he is offering.
Sometimes he cannot do it himself. He might ask a friend
of his to go and encourage some tourists to come and get
on his speed boat, buy some craft from him or something
like that. The friend, when he is approached, he might not
be carrying a licence for that particular field and the next
thing you know he is a criminal, he is not a rogue or
vagabond any more.
In this Century we cannot have Laws that would
hamper small business people. We must be looking after
their interest. They are the ones that would need our
protection. As the rich would say, Sir, you do not look
after the dollars, the dollars look after themselves. It is the
cents and pennies that you have to look after. I am saying
to this Government, it is not the big fish you have to look
after, you have to look after the small fish.
Mr. Speaker, I should like to know if there is a
survey - and I am always hearing that there are surveys
saying that there is beach harassment - I should like to
know if there is a breakdown. Whether this information is
coming from the English tourists, whether it is coming
from the Germans, the Americans or the Canadians.
I had the opportunity to visit some friends of mine a
couple Saturdays ago and I was told that they went to a
particular hotel to have breakfast with a friend and the lady
said to this other friend, “I cannot understand the people in
Barbados anymore. The workers are not coming to work as
they used to come to work, 10 or 20 years ago. I am not
seeing anybody serving me in suits anymore.” Can you
imagine what I am saying, Sir? We have to be careful,
Sir,…
Mr. SPEAKER: I am trying to. I am trying.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: …that we do not follow
information from people who have a particular interest to
serve. Mr. Speaker, we know that the English tourists are
quite different - and that is if you are involved or if you
know anything about tourism - from the American tourists,
the Canadian tourists or the German tourists. That is if you
know anything about tourism, Sir.
I am also aware that there are people from your
constituency who operate in the St. James area and I know
you would have an interest in this because you would want
to be sure that they will not be branded as vagrants, rogues
or vagabonds.
We must look after the vulnerable group because we
have found ourselves, in this country, where even the
taximen, as the Honourable Member for St. Joseph would
want you to believe, even the taximen that he has spoken
to are a bit worried that they are now not getting their fair
share of the cake. They are complaining that there are other
people - and all-inclusive tourism again - before 50 taxi
cars used to service 4 hotels. Now one person with 2 or 3
buses is servicing a hotel. They are cutting out 50 people.
Multiply 50 by 6 and that is 300 people. Then do the
multiplier effect, Sir, and you would see the disadvantage
that all-inclusive tourism is putting on this country. Also
then take the amendments to the Vagrancy Act and you tell
me if you do not see a situation where in the long run,
instead of creating jobs, you will be creating unemployment
in this country. 4.10 p.m.
Sir, wherever there is freedom there is the possibility
of employment but whenever there are strict rules and
guidelines you will always get problems with employment
because there are honest people who might be prepared to
apply for a licence to work on the beach but if they find
that the rules and laws are enforced in such a way they
might feel within themselves that if they go on the beach
somebody might interpret the law the wrong way and

they might become criminals. One has to be very careful
how they amend certain rules and amend certain laws
because you might set out to do something that is very
good, and I believe the intention of the Honourable
Member for St. Thomas is good, but it is not the
Honourable Member for St. Thomas who would have to
police these things. He is not going to be on the spot. You
can have a situation, Sir, where a competitor feeds
information to a policeman about a vendor and when that
information gets to the policeman he believes the
information, that the beach vendor is doing something
wrong, when in truth and in fact the beach vendor might
not be doing anything wrong but he might have been
framed because he might have been competing with one of
his competitors and the competitor is about to use the
Vagrancy Act against him.
Sir, on this topic about harassment, a lot of us, nearly
everybody in here, we have been harassed every Sunday,
sometimes as late as 8 o’clock in the night. We have been
harassed by people and sometimes we do not know them.
Sometimes we cannot even identify with them but we
never ask the politicians for laws to deal with them. So,
Sir, we must ask ourselves if there is harassment for the
tourists and the harassment for the tourists is different to
the harassment for Barbadians.
Sir, I have no problem with anybody trying to
promote their business but at the same time, if someone is
free to come to me to promote their business and I can
give them an ear, I feel other people have a right to
promote theirs too.
Sir, I am in a position where I listen to people and I
have heard many cases of people getting involved in water
sports at large hotels and they give the beach vendors and
the people in water sports bad names. They say all sorts of
things to them, to the wardens and to the policemen just to
keep the trade for themselves. We must be sure that
whatever we are doing in this House that we are doing it
with a clear conscience and that at the end of the day we
are representing the interests of all and not a minority
group, Sir.
I am saying, Sir, that the hoteliers have a right to get
involved in whatever they want to get involved in. That is
their right. But we as lawmakers, we should not be seen as
the ones promoting their interests just because we have to
protect the hotel industry and it is in our interest to protect
the hotel industry, but at the same time we must take that
information and we must be sure that the information that
is coming to us is the correct information.
I am also told, Sir, that sometimes a lot of the crimes
that we hear about, they never occur. There are people who
put in claims to the police station just to make an insurance
claim. Do you know when that happens who will be
blamed for it? Your constituents, my constituents, the
constituents of the Honourable Member for St. James
North, the constituents of the Honourable Member for St.
James South, because the impression out there is that there
are bad boys on the beaches and that they will do anything
wrong. When you hear of a situation where someone has
been robbed of jewelry when in truth and fact they never
had the jewelry in Barbados, the people of Barbados will
be blamed for stealing the jewelry when it never came to
Barbados.
If we are going to amend the Vagrancy Act, we have
to be sure in our minds that it will be policed in such a
way that innocent people will not be unfaired.
Tell me something, Sir. If a black American comes to
Barbados and he is travelling along one of the streets and
someone goes up to him and promotes a service, would
that be regarded as harassment? If a white American comes
to Barbados and someone goes up to that person on the
street, would that be regarded as harassment?
Sir, we need to know what is harassment, we need to
know what is annoyance. We need to be sure in our minds
that people out there trying to earn a living are not doing
something that is wrong. You might have two situations.
You might have two vendors and today when you are
talking about vendors you are not talking about white or
black because there are white vendors and there are black
vendors so do not bring in the talk about racism or
anything like that If a Bajan approaches a tourist someone
might regard that as harassment If a German approaches
a tourist it would not be regarded as harassment even
though the German might be offering the same thing that
the Bajan is offering. I would like to know, Sir, what in the
Vagrancy Act would protect the German and what would
protect the Bajan? I would like to know whether the
policeman would know that the German was harassing the
tourist or whether he would know that the Bajan is
harassing the tourist?
Mr. Speaker, the reason why I have mentioned that
point is that there are business people in Barbados now,
who in order to get around the system, are not employing
locals to promote their businesses anymore they are
importing some of the same tourists because they are
saying they have the one to one contact because they
cannot get into the hotels to promote their businesses so
what they are doing, they are getting the tourists now to do
it for themselves.
I want to know how would you differentiate between
the local harassment, as they would say, according to the
Act and the foreign harassment? I would like to know if
the foreign harassment is a criminal offence like how it

like to know if there is one law for the tourists and there
is a different law for locals. You see, Mr. Speaker, even
though I compliment the Honourable Attorney General of
what he is trying to do, his intentions might be right but I
believe that the end results will be wrong, Sir. I look
forward to the Honourable Member for Christ Church
South when he makes his contribution because I would like
to hear what he has to say on this particular amendment I
am sure, Sir, that for the amount of research that the
Honourable Member for Christ Church South has done for
today alone that he will have a lot to say in this House. I
know that after he has finished his research he will have to
call for another amendment to the Vagrancy Act, because
he will convinced that there are laws already in Barbados
to cover the areas that the Vagrancy Act would like to
cover.

I am saying, Sir, that another area we might have to
look at instead of amending the Vagrancy Act is to
increase the number of licences for vendors and other
people whether it is for beach vendors to operate beach
crafts, etc. There are lots of people on the beach who
would like to operate within the law but they are deprived
of a licence.

I think that the Honourable Attorney General can
speak to his comrades and make sure that… They are good
people and they are not trying to break the law because
they want to break the law, but it is a matter of survival
and we have a right to look after those people. I am saying
that those who feel within themselves that they are above
the law, well, that is a different matter.
Mr. Speaker, I have no choice and I have observed
that the Honourable Member for St James North has not
spoken on this debate. So I will have to put in his five
cents worth too, Sir. I feel that seeing the number of people
that he has working in his constituency on the beach that
he will find it extremely difficult to go against me, Sir, on
this particular point On his behalf, Sir, I would like to tell
the Honourable Member for St. Thomas that he should
have another look at this amendment. I believe and I will
repeat myself again, Sir, he means well on what he would
like to do. But you can identify the people. Look, do not
let anybody fool you. The same two people you see in
Bridgetown you see in St James, Oistins or up by
Chefette. They are known. The crimes are known, Sir, and
I am saying that, if you know people have a problem and
to be honest with you, Sir, I have to say to them: Why are
you annoying the tourists? They say to me that they are not
annoying the tourists. I am offering a service. It is true to
me that their approaches are wrong. That is only my
judgment, Sir. I am not saying that I am right and they are
wrong. What we need to find out, Sir, if they are doing
something wrong. We need to shape those people to make
sure that their approaches are correct, Sir. Because if you
bring a law, it is not going to change them if you do not
teach them correctly. What we need to do, Sir, is to change
the way they think. If you try to change the minds of those
people, Sir, you may not be able to convert all but you
may be able to convert some.

I honestly believe, Sir, that the licensed beach vendors
have a major role to play on the beaches. I honestly
believe, Sir, that you should not need policemen to police
the beaches. I believe that the licensed beach vendors in
their own interest should be doing that job. Because if you
are on the beach and you see someone doing something
that is going to jeopardize what you are doing, you have a
right to make sure you weed them out.

I am saying, Sir, that another area we might have to
look at instead of amending the Vagrancy Act is to
increase the number of licences for vendors and other
people whether it is for beach vendors to operate beach
crafts, etc. There are lots of people on the beach who
would like to operate within the law but they are deprived
of a licence. 4.25 p.m.
I think that the Honourable Attorney General can
speak to his comrades and make sure that… They are good
people and they are not trying to break the law because
they want to break the law, but it is a matter of survival
and we have a right to look after those people. I am saying
that those who feel within themselves that they are above
the law, well, that is a different matter.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to end by saying that we
must look to prptect jobs for people and not to deprive
people of jobs. Thank you very much, Sir.

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, over the last
day or so we have been hearing about the expectations of
Government with their financial programme. We heard
from the Honourable Member for St. Peter about the
programme for Speightstown and the surrounding areas.
We also heard him saying in this Honourable House that he
has allocated $3 million for rural development. I want to
reflect on something I said earlier in this session and I will
not quote the exact words so I would not find myself in
trouble.
When this House first dealt with rural development,
we dealt with a subsidy for $200 000 and I said at that
time that what we should have been dealing with for the
half year was probably $2 million and not $200 000. If in
the beginning as we were dealing with $200 000 and it
should have been $2 million for half a year I cannot see
how I can honestly support any Resolution, Bill or
whatever for $3 million for one whole year

Let us be serious, Sir. Speightstown or St. Peter is the
key area for development in the North of Barbados. You
heard the Honourable Member for St. Peter say that he
wants to see a jetty and there is need for a marketplace. I
have no problem with that because the Democratic Labour
Party set up a programme and a project at Spring Hall
called the Spring Hall Land Lease Project where we
encouraged farmers to lease land from the Government to
grow their produce. I honestly believe that Speightstown
would provide that place where these farmers could grow
their crops, reap their produce, bring them into
Speightstown and display their produce. Not only would
the farmers be able to use that marketplace but the
fishermen would be able to use the marketplace. The
people in the handicraft industry through rural Barbados
would be able to come into Speightstown as that central
point where we would be able to sell our produce, whether
it be to the locals or the tourists that would be coming into
Speightstown whether they would be coming by the cruise
liners, taxis, ZMs, BTs or the Zs.
Mr. Speaker, when you have a situation where you
are asking people to focus on Speightstown as the focal
point, then one can understand why in the early 1970s Mr.
Barrow decided that he wanted a hotel to the North of
Speightstown, the one that we now call Heywoods, One
would understand why Mr. Barrow went for projects like
the cement plant and this is all pan of rural development.
One would understand why he also had in his Manifesto a
small airport for the North of Barbados.
Sir, when we the Democratic Labour Party are
speaking about rural development, we are speaking about
true development and no token vote can do all that is
needed in rural Barbados. I am saying to this House that
the $3 million that is in the vote for rural development
cannot even repair all the roads in St. Lucy. It is
interesting. As I am always saying to this House, when you
are dealing with roads in a rural areas, you are not talking
about highways because whenever you build a tenantry
road it means that you are making provision for about 10
or 20 houses. The Honourable Member for St. Andrew will
agree with me on that, or the Honourable Member for St.
James North, or St. Peter. When you are talking about a
rural programme you must come back and agree with the
policies of the Democratic Labour Party. Our policy, as
was stated earlier by me in here on roads is we had
promised that we would have finished all the tenantry roads
by the end of 1995 which the Honourable Member for St.
Thomas agrees with me, and it is in Hansard,
Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS: On a point of order, I am

not in the habit of agreeing with foolishness. I never agreed
that the Democratic Labour Party could finish all the
tenantry roads by 1995. For eight years they did
nothing for me in St Thomas, not one. They never
completed one tenantry road for eight years in St. Thomas.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, the
Honourable Member for St. Thomas is in Hansard as
saying that the Democratic Labour Party had planned to
construct all the tenantry roads by 1995 to win an election.
I would like to know how come he is in Hansard saying
that but the Honourable Member does not understand the
importance of tenantry roads. That is why I am going to
tell him now that once you build tenantry roads in rural
Barbados it has a different effect than in urban Barbados
because you build tenantry roads in urban Barbados for
houses that are there already and you build tenantry roads
in rural Barbados to encourage more houses and more
development.
I am saying, Sir, that it is very important that you
have roads in rural Barbados. It is very important to have
marketplaces. I know that once you have these facilities in
rural Barbados then those in central Barbados would be
able to have facilities at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and
they would not have to compete with us from rural
Barbados because we would still have the St. Joseph
Hospital which would be playing an important part in the
health services of Barbados.
Under a proper rural development, Sir, a place like St.
Joseph Hospital will be important. I cannot understand how
the Honourable Member for St. Peter could allow the
Honourable Member for St. James South to close St.
Joseph Hospital when he has such a nice programme for
rural Barbados, according to his pronouncements before the
elections. I cannot understand. The Honourable Member
has good plans for marinas. He has spoken to the Florida
Cruise Association to get cruise liners into Speightstown
and at the same time allows the Honourable Member for
St. James South to close down the Hospital when we could
have easily used the St. Joseph Hospital as a marketing tool
to convince everybody in the world that the place to come
to in Barbados is in the north of Barbados, rural Barbados.
It is amazing. I cannot understand how the
Honourable Member for St. James South, who is part of
rural Barbados, could close down a hospital in a rural
constituency. We must be very careful for the simple
reason that when we are looking at development in this
country, we must make sure that we are not interfering
with anything that would affect the progress of rural
Barbados. 1,40 p.m.
We have to be careful for the simple reason that when
we are looking at development in this country, we must
make sure that we are not interfering with anything that
would affect the progress of rural Barbados. I want to give
you a couple examples, Sir, I see nothing wrong with the
Prime Minister transferring some of the Government
services to Speightstown. In this day and age of modem
technology, there is nothing wrong with that. I do not see
why anybody from rural Barbados whether it be Crab Hill,
Mile-and-a-Quarter, Bawden, Horse Hill, Oxnards or even
Paynes Bay…
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: That is part of rural
Barbados. You are close to urban Barbados. You do not
think you are in rural Barbados anymore. Why should they
have to go to Bridgetown to get a passport or to pay their
Driver’s Licence or even to get a Police Certificate of
Character? I believe they should be able to go to rural
Barbados, Speightstown and get those services. The
Honourable Member for Christ Church South would agree
with me on that because he knows the meaning of
divesting some of these services and projects in Oistin.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: He can understand why the
Honourable Member for St. Peter would want some of
these services in Speightstown. I have no problem with
that. I will support him.
I am also saying that the Honourable Member for St.
Peter should ask the Honourable Member for St. Joseph to
make sure that the project for the Naval Base Facility down
at Harrison Point, the land base cruise facility down at
Harrison Point be completed as soon as possible. Because
if you are going to attract cruise liners to Speightstown,
you are going to need those facilities.
It is very important to state in this House. You check
and see the sites that the cruise ship passengers go to and
you will see that nearly all of them are in rural Barbados.
When you have a marina in St. Peter and something
happens at sea, the people need to know that they still have
the St Joseph Hospital to go to. I am calling on the Prime
Minister, even if he needs to make a Cabinet reshuffle that
he does what is necessary to make sure that we still have
our hospital in the North.
I want the Prime Minister to understand that there
were plans under the IADB. We negotiated with the IADB
to have a polytechnic down at the Naval Base Facility as
well. At the same time we negotiated for the Youth Service
to have a permanent home at the Naval Base Facility.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Read the records as you
always do. I do not know if someone hid that file from
you but I know you would check it out and you will make
sure that you come back and admit to me that we did that.
I am asking them to go back, look at and see all of
those projects that we had for rural Barbados and I should
like to see them implemented like yesterday, not tomorrow
or next year, Because when you have such sound plans and
policies, you do not expect any Minister to come and
decide that the main plank of development that he or she
is going to take away from the development.
What I should also like to see for Speightstown - I
know that it is not in my constituency but I am not going
to be selfish because it is very important to realize that
Speightstown is abutting and abounding, in some way, to
St. Lucy, St. Joseph, St. Andrew, whatever you want to call
it. I should like to see Speightstown expanded to the east
so that we would not have to worry about people bypassing
Speightstown, so that there will be commercial
development to the east in order for us to have an
expanded Speightstown so that the commercial activities in
Speightstown would be to the benefit of the other rural
constituencies.
Speightstown is the focal point in the north. Do not
let us deny it. We need to put finances into Speightstown.
I cannot understand when we should be spending $10
million to $15 million, how we could be spending $3
million. I cannot understand how any committee that is
about to be formed now could pretend it was formed 6
months ago. I would not say much about that now. I will
leave that until the relevant time. I am not trotting now.
When I stan to trot, I will deal with that.
Sir, we must see places like River Bay, Cove Bay,
Barclays Park, Farley Hill and all other areas in rural
Barbados that are playing important roles and are important
to the development of rural Barbados. We cannot afford to
continue to provide these services and not get our fair share
of the cake. It is no sense telling me that you are providing
me with Highway 2 or the Duncan O’Neal Highway. We
want to see some tenantry roads. We want to see a lot of
tenantry roads, not one or two. I want to see them go and
complete the programme left for them by the Democratic
Labour Party, the tenantry roads programme.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Pardon me?
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Have we not built roads in
St. Lucy? I wonder if you know St. Lucy.
Aside.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: I want to see a situation in
rural Barbados where my son or your son-in-law, Sir,
would not have to travel…
Asides.
Mr, B. M. TAUT: On a point of order, Sir. As you
know, I always try to get the facts. I do not really
understand. Am I to understand the Honourable Member to
be saying that his son is your son-in-law?
Mr. SPEAKER: I have a daughter. I do not know.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: Right now there is no
provision for a subsidy for the Transport Board, Sir. If
there is no provision for a subsidy for the Transport Board,
I have no problem. If you are going to tell me that you are
going to put all of the necessary facilities and services in
the rural constituencies that they need not travel out of the
rural constituencies to Bridgetown or the urban area so that
it would not put pressure on the transportation system. Is
that what you plan to do, Sir? Am I to believe that the
people from St Philip North and St. Philip South would
have all the necessary facilities that they would not have to
rely on the Transport Board anymore? That is rural
Barbados too.
We on this side have no problem with subsidies to the
Transport Board. We have always financed the Transport
Board whether we did it at the end when there was a need
to or whether we did it up front
What I want to know is if $3 million is supposed to
do everything that is expected by the people in rural
Barbados?
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Rural Barbados is
important and the Honourable Member for Christ Church
South would understand that. That is why we will make
sure that - sometimes people from rural Barbados would
not understand, they would criticize it - we develop all the
necessary infrastructure in rural Barbados to make sure that
rural Barbados pays for whatever it wants.
It must be stated that a hospital is not important only
for rural Barbados but polyclinics are important. I want to
know if the Honourable Member for StAndrew is going to
sit back and ignore the fact that in our Manifesto on page
31 we had a polyclinic for St. Andrew. And if he is not
going to make noise about that polyclinic not coming to St.
Andrew. We would also like to know about the one for
Horse Hill, St. Joseph and the one for St. John because
when we speak about rural development these are things
we talk about. There is a myth in this country that

rural development has started 6 months ago. That is not
true. Rural development has always been part of us.

Mr. Speaker, rural development was so far advanced
that we would be believe that in the seventies the late Mr.
Barrow was talking about an airport for St. Lucy and he
was serious. It so happened that by 1976 the Government
changed and of course rural Barbados suffered for that. The
same plans we had for the St. Joseph Hospital to make sure
that the poor people of St. Lucy and other rural
constituencies, if there was a major accident that they
would have a hospital. 1995 came and things have changed
the hospital has gone again.
We would like to see a road linking Hope Road and
Bishops because when that road is linked you have a
situation where it provides a beautjful site for tourists and
Barbadians alike. You can see all over St. Lucy and even
some parts of «St. Peter.
Mr. SPEAKER: Please, do not start it up now.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: It can be regarded as a
tourist attraction. We are not in Government now, Sir, so
we have to ask the Government to provide these things. We
know what we were planning to do and by Budget time,
Sir, I will provide my manifesto to the people of St. Lucy
to show them that we had sound plans for the people in the
rural constituencies.
We have enough evidence to prove, Sir, that
whenever there is change of Government in this country
and there is a change from DLP to BLP, rural Barbados
suffers for that. We do not think we should pay for that,
Sir. We are contributing enough to Barbados. And I am
going by the Honourable Member for St. Peter and I will
repeat it, if we are to attract tourism and cruise ship
tourism in St. Peter, we must have the infrastructure. I am
saying to the Honourable Member for St. Peter that he
must not allow his Minister to only come for a vote for $3
million but he should ask his Minister to come for a vote
for $15 million because it would also help the Member for
St. James North …

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Pardon me. $15 million,
Sir, because there is enough evidence that with a $15
million investment in the North of Barbados that the
Government would get a better return than that.

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: That is nothing. That is
my constituency. I have a right to speak about that. If you
do not want anything for St. James North tell me so now.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: I know that. If the
Honourable Member for St. Joseph wants to say that the
Honourable Prime Minister has cut it from $15 million to
$3 million he must say that but I am not going to say that
because I know the Honourable Member for St Peter
would like the same $15 million to develop the whole of
St. Peter. Honourable Member for St Joseph if you are
saying that it is the Honourable Member for St. Peter that
cut the Budget, I would not know that, you would know
because you would be privy to that.
Sir, we want to see also a link of certain roads that
are also important for the development of rural Barbados.
Sir, once the necessary facilities are provided in rural
Barbados and the cruise ships come into Speightstown,
passengers would be able to do their shopping, go on
nature tours through St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. Lucy, St.
Joseph, St. Philip, even St. Thomas and if we had the St.
Joseph Hospital and they were sick they would be able to
go there and not have to compete with the patients at the
Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Since they do not have that
facility now, Sir, so I do not know how the Florida Cruise
Ship Association would look at this proposal by the Prime
Minister but I hope that it would be favourable because it
would help the people in the North of Barbados and the
other areas.
I have no problem in supporting a supplementary
vote, maybe later down in the year, whether it be $7
million of $12 million for rural development I want to
assure the Prime Minister that once he is doing anything
for rural Barbados that he will have my support and I
would say to him, all he has to do is to adopt the plans of
the Democratic Labour Party and he would have no
problem in finding support for his plans.
We heard a lot about vendors and I was rather
surprised sitting in this House of Assembly to hear that the
Barbados Labour Party has plans for vendors. I cannot
believe that this is the same party that nearly every evening
for the last year or two was criticising vending. I do not
believe it, Sir, but if they have now realised that vending
is important and it can help create jobs I have no problem.
There are times when we need to repent and if they are
repenting now, Sir, I am prepared to give way to them, Sir.
I would like to see them continue to allow the
vendors to have proper markets along the highway. They
have created those markets. All I would like to see them do
is to provide the necessary infrastructure. If they do that…
Hon. Miss B. A. MILLER: Mr. Speaker, Sir, on a
point of order. I would want to refer the Honour864
able Member for St. Lucy to page 9 of the Barbados
Labour Party Manifesto. It has a whole section dealing with
vendors and to remind the Honourable Member so that he
does not any longer mislead the House, that this Barbados
Labour Party had plans for vendors in the old Marshall
Hall Building on Hincks Street which was in our Manifesto
of 1986. Eight years later all we have at Marshall Hall,
Hincks Street is a burnt out shell. The red pencil was put
through that by the Democratic Labour Party.
Mr. SPEAKER: The Honourable Member has two
minutes.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: I want to thank the
Honourable Member for the City for reminding me that
they had plans of giving Marshall Hall to the vendors so I
hope they will make haste and construct the building down
at Marshall Hall and give it to the vendors because we will
be looking forward to that promise. Now I can afford to
tell the vendors in the urban areas that Marshall Hall
belongs to them.
Mr. SPEAKER: Honourable Members, keep it orderly
please.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: You see, Sir, when I look
under the Head, Rural Development, all I am seeing is
agriculture. I want to let the Government know that rural
development means more than agriculture. I cannot
understand how people can associate rural development
only with agriculture, Sir. Sir, even though I would like to
see the Honourable Minister do a lot more for the farmers
at Spring Hall, I would like to see him put in the necessary
irrigation for all the farmers at Spring Hall. It is not fair
that there are some farmers at Spring Hall with irrigation
and there are some new farmers at Spring Hall who are
still waiting to have irrigation in their plots. I am saying to
this House that I am looking forward for the Honourable
Members on that side coming to this House of Assembly,
for a larger vote for rural development and I will assure
this House that if they come with a larger vote and the
pronouncements are correct I will support them on that.

Thank you, Sir.

Mr. SPEAKER: The Honourable Member for St.
Lucy.

FEBRUARY, 21, 1995
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, as you are
aware, on the West Coast of this island we have a police
station which is commonly referred to now as the “hotel”
for policemen. That is the Holetown Police Station.

Mr. Speaker, after listening to the spc3ches by the
Honourable Members on the other side, I am convinced
that we have a situation where we should build some place
for these vehicles and exhibits to be stored. I do not think
that you can take a place like Holetown and continue to
store things in the condition they are stored in. We cannot

have a piece of real estate like that and have it in a couple
of years in a situation where it will affect the value of that
particular property.

Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: We know that there are
some Members who would not like to see the policemen in
such a nice police station, but we have no problem with
that. One must point out that having a police station in
Holetown is very important, as the Honourable Member for
St. James North will tell you, because the Holetown Police
Station is right on the beach.
Mr. SPEAKER: I am not going to allow the
Honourable Member to stray from the Bill.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: That is right We are
dealing with exhibits and some of these exhibits come in
through the sea and the Holetown Police Station is on the
beach, Sir. In this day when you have exhibits which can
come into Barbados by the sea, we must have a police
station to make sure that those exhibits are well stored and
also to make sure that those exhibits, when they come on
the west coast, that you have a police station in the right
location that you can get those items and that the
policemen can do their job and you do not have to call the
policemen but they will be right there on the beach to
make sure that your children and my children are protected.
I am saying, Mr. Speaker, that what we need to do,
instead of storing these things at all the police stations, that
we build something, a building, whatever you like to call
it, at a central location for all of these things. When you
think about it, Sir, there are probably about nine policemen
looking after records, these exhibits, and you will probably
need one or two and you will be able to relieve some of
the policemen who are looking after exhibits now to go and
man the streets.
I am saying, Mr. Speaker, I support the Bill,
providing that we are going to have the amendments as
mentioned by the Honourable Member for St. George
South. I also would hope that instead of having exhibits all
over Barbados that we will have a central location for them
and we would be able to get rid of the exhibits as soon as
possible, and if we need to draft additional legislation to
make sore that these exhibits do not necessarily have to
remain in the custody of the police for a long time, I am
calling on the Attorney General to ask his consultants, his
experts, whoever, to get the necessary legislation before
this Parliament so that we can have a situation where we
would not have to come back in here and talk about the
conditions at the police stations because of exhibits.

We also heard of situations where money is being
stored and is rotting or disappearing. We do not want to
have this situation. Money is important. If the money is
going into the Consolidated Fund or is being used for
something else, we have no problem with that, but we
cannot have money that we cannot account for.
Mr. Speaker, I will say to the Honourable Member for
St. Thomas that he should make the necessary amendment
and that we on this side are prepared to support anything
that can expedite efficiency in the legal system of
Barbados.
Thank you.